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Exploring BRI facilities to strengthen maritime security

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In the context of an ever-growing focus of international politics on Asia in the twenty-first century, Bangladesh's geo-strategic location in the Bay of Bengal provides the country with a significant strategic maritime space. Bangladesh is located on the northern border of the Bay of Bengal with about a 710 kilometre-long coastline. The country has obtained a sea area of about 166,000 square kilometres after the demarcation of its maritime boundary with Myanmar in 2012 and with India in 2014. This maritime area serves as the lifeline of Bangladesh's economic development - about 30 million people of the country are directly connected to the ocean-based economy.

From the geo-economic aspects, the sea and adjacent coastal areas of Bangladesh contain a huge amount of proven living and non-living resources, including fisheries, energies, minerals, and hydrocarbons. For instance, in January 2018, Bangladesh discovered about 600 billion cubic feet of gas reserves in its southern coastal district of Bhola. In terms of fisheries, there are about 475 species of fish in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, accounting for about 2.73 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and about 4.9 per cent of its total export earnings, while generating about 12 per cent of its total employment. All these indicate the significance of maritime security for Bangladesh in order to continue the upward trend of its economic development with the annual growth rate averaging about seven per cent. Bangladesh has a bigger scope to employ its blue economy for national development and, thereby, maximise its geo-economic opportunities. In view of the potential of the blue economy, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has rightly remarked, "Blue economy is a concept which can significantly contribute to the socio-economic development of Bangladesh."

However, geopolitically, Bangladesh's maritime area is vulnerable to a number of conventional security threats. The maritime area of the country contains two critical sea lines of communications (SLOCs): the first one goes east to Southeast Asia, China and Japan through the Strait of Malacca, and the second one goes west to Saudi Arabia, Iran and so on. Bangladesh is exposed to the great power rivalry in the Indian Ocean. The command of the Bay of Bengal has long been a key issue of contention among the major powers of the world, including the USA, China, Japan, and India.

Bangladesh has undertaken a number of measures to modernise its maritime defence forces through capacity building and technological advancement. China's assistance to Bangladesh has been proven crucial in this regard. These two countries have been maintaining a close relationship for the last two decades. China has been playing a vital role in the modernisation of Bangladesh Navy through providing technological and infrastructural assistance. China sold a large number of naval equipments to Bangladesh over the last few years. For instance, in between 2009 and 2015, Bangladesh purchased six surface ships from China, including two patrol boats with modest anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities, and two ex-Jianghu-III Chinese frigates. China also offered shipping designs and technologies to the shipyards of Bangladesh Navy in 2015-16. As a part of its 'three dimension' goal, Bangladesh Navy purchased two refurbished submarines from China, named BNS Nabajatra and Joyjatra, both delivered in November 2016.

Along with these developments, the 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI) has widened the scope of Bangladesh-China bilateral maritime security cooperation. BRI is the most significant and far-reaching project that China has ever put forward. Bangladesh is an important strategic partner with China in this two-dimensional mega-project, comprising the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road. The Maritime Silk Road encompasses both the major sea lanes of communications of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. China also frequently uses these sea routes, which, in fact, serve as its distant sea-lifelines for energy supplies from Middle East and African coasts. However, increasing American naval presence in the Asia Pacific in recent years as well as the growing threat of maritime piracy in the Indian Ocean has raised China's tension about the future security of these SLOCs.

In this regard, BRI provides China with a strategic scope of using Bangladesh's sea routes as well as its sea ports to establish overland connectivity between the Bay of Bengal and its landlocked Yunnan province, and, thereby, avoiding its Malacca dilemma. Bangladesh, on the other hand, gets the scope to upgrade its naval capabilities and sea ports by China's technical and financial assistance. Therefore, enhanced bilateral maritime security cooperation with China under the broad framework of BRI is likely to provide a geo-strategic leverage for Bangladesh in South Asia and boost its capacity to effectively mitigate maritime security threats. 

Noor Mohammad Sarker is a PhD candidate at the School of Political Science and Public Administration in Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong, China. [email protected]

 

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